A neighbor I have known for about six years died on Saturday.  His funeral was yesterday.  I didn’t know him and only spoke with him once.  I was gathering limbs in my yard when he stopped and told me I needed to use one of those limbs on my friend.  My friend and this gentleman often sit together and talk ranching and farming at the local doughnut shop.

Each morning when I awakened to ready for work, I would go to the kitchen to feed my cat, but while at the kitchen sink, I would see his truck lights come on and I knew where he was headed — the doughnut shop.  Once, and he never knew this, I looked out my kitchen window to see him hoeing in his garden.  He suddenly stood up and grabbed his back.  A day or two before the incident he had been diagnosed with cancer.  Nevertheless, I was ready to go and help if the need had arisen.  He stood there for a few moments, and when I saw he was alright, I went about my day.  It’s strange the things which remain with us, memories of someone we barely knew, but knew their habits.

Many times he would leave at the same time I did.  I would make the same turn onto the highway.  He would turn into the parking lot at the doughnut shop and I would head to work.  I have missed not seeing him take his usual morning route, and he never knew I watched out for him.  Such a simple memory.

I talked with his sister, hugged her, and gave her a memorial gift in his name.  She was crying.  I told her he had a trail down the highway, back and forth every morning, to his favorite shop.  And when I return from work in the afternoon, I still look for his truck, which is no longer there.  Someone else has the truck now.

My friend went to his memorial service and stopped by work to tell me how the service went.  He takes the passing of his friends very hard.  He is the only one left in his family.  He has grandsons which will carry on his family’s name, but he told me one by one his friends were dying.  I consoled him and told him I knew he would miss his friend, but his friend would want him to carry on.

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten;  and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow;  for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”   Psalm 90:10

“What is your life?  For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”    James 4:14

No person reading the above scriptures can help but think of the brevity of life.  In no time at all life is over and we are buried in a small grave where grass will grow over us.  How foolish we are to think anything we attain in this life will endure.  All that will live on after we are gone will be how we used our talents to serve God.  Our hope should rest in Him and Him alone.  Long after this life is over, our souls live on throughout eternity.  Will it be heaven or hell?  The choice is ours.  Heaven is a place for prepared people, just as hell is a place for the unprepared.

All who read this, myself included, are headed to the final judgment.  We will all stand in the presence of the eternal judge and will be judged “out of the things which are written in His Word.”  The thief, the Christian, the murderer, the poor, the rich, the atheist, kings, queens, presidents, Congress, the Supreme Court, and all people who ever lived will make this appointment and stand before Him and give an account of their deeds in this life.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened:  and another book was opened which is the Book of Life:  and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”    Revelation 20:12

“And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”    Revelation 20:15

“He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment;  and I will not blot out his name out of the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.”    Revelation 3:5

“And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:  but they which are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”     Revelation 21:27

“And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My Book.”       Exodus 32:33

Our lives are so brief.  Whether we attain the applause of men, or walk in poverty, whether we have the contempt of others, or live in freedom or oppression, all will pale in comparison if we walk with our Lord in a life time of faithfulness to Him.  We need not waste our time being concerned whether we please men or not.  The question is.  Do we please God?

May we all think on and read of the brevity and the seriousness of this life before it is eternally too late.  Let His Word direct your path!

“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with.  Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do.  We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.”
~ Seneca